


mixing business and feelings (will only lead to complications)

by shineyma



Series: complications [1]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, F/M, Season/Series 01
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-10
Updated: 2016-02-10
Packaged: 2018-05-19 12:04:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5966773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shineyma/pseuds/shineyma
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Grant's past comes back to haunt him--and not in the way he's always half-expected it would.</p>
            </blockquote>





	mixing business and feelings (will only lead to complications)

**Author's Note:**

> I was gonna say I don't know why it is I can't write full, REAL fics anymore, but actually I think it's down to school. This semester is already SUPER busy and full-length fics are just not a commitment I can make. So. Here, have another drabble with the potential for expansion into a series! 
> 
> I'm a little bit behind on comment replies, I'm sorry! I'll get to those ASAP. Thanks for reading and, as always, please be gentle if you review!

It takes Grant a good six hours (and two decapitated training dummies _and_ a broken punching bag) to regain his calm. He thought the berserker rage was hard to handle, but it’s _nothing_ to this. Even once he manages to rein in his immediate reaction, his heart continues to pound in his ears, and his hands itch with the urge for violence.

SHIELD is gonna pay for this…and so is HYDRA. There’s no _fucking_ way HYDRA didn’t know about this.

He has to put those thoughts aside for now, though. It’s more important than ever to keep his cover, at least for the next few hours.

So he pushes it down, puts a lid on it, and—six hours after he was briefed—gives Coulson the go-ahead to brief the rest of the team. Or what’s left of it, at least; Kernighan’s still on medical leave, and everyone’s pretty damn positive he’s not coming back. (Good riddance.)

Also, they’re flying through restricted airspace at the minute, which means May’s on the stick. So really, it’s just Skye and Fitz that are getting briefed.

Once they’re arranged around the holocom (Grant hangs back, leaning against the counter that runs along the windows), Coulson jumps right in.

“This is Jemma Simmons,” he says, putting her picture up on the screen. “She’s a biochemist, a former prodigy who had two PhDs by seventeen and was wanted in twelve countries before she hit twenty-one. Her crimes include kidnapping, human experimentation, terrorism, conspiracy to commit murder, and actual murder—just to name a few.”

“So she’s bad news,” Skye sums up, and Grant breathes through the sudden spike in his temper.

“She’s _brilliant_ ,” Fitz says unexpectedly. Coulson and Skye both blink at him. “That is, she’s…a very bad person. But scientifically speaking—”

“She’s one of the best,” Coulson completes heavily. “She wouldn’t be such a problem if she wasn’t.”

“So are we bringing her in?” Skye asks.

“I’m afraid it’s not that simple,” Coulson says, and casts an apologetic look at Grant. “Six years ago, Agent Ward was sent to infiltrate Simmons’ operation.”

Skye and Fitz swivel to look at Grant, who meets their stares evenly.

“Infiltrate?” Fitz asks. “Infiltrate how?”

“Test subject?” Skye suggests, and peers at him suspiciously. “Experimentation would explain the cheekbones.”

Coulson raises his eyebrows in a silent offer to let Grant take this. It’s the absolute last thing he wants, but he can’t afford to let on just how affected he is by this whole thing. Some anger is understandable—to be expected, even—but if SHIELD knew even half the things he’s thinking right now, he’d be benched before he could say _fuck you_.

So he pushes away from the counter and takes his place at the holocom like a good little agent.

“I went in as a gun for hire,” he says shortly. “SHIELD had tried infiltrating the organization before, but all of the operatives they sent in as true believers got made pretty much on sight. By posing as a mercenary and letting Simmons’ people come to me, I made it all the way to the top. There, as ordered, I allowed things to become intimate with Simmons as an excuse to extend my stay.”

Skye startles a little at that; she might be settling in well with their team, but she’s still a rookie, and she hasn’t adjusted to the way SHIELD does things.

Although, to be fair, she might never; Coulson sure looked uncomfortable when the topic came up earlier.

Fitz, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to give it a second thought. “But Simmons isn’t in SHIELD custody.”

“No,” Grant agrees. “Seven months in, I was forced to compromise my cover in order to prevent a biological attack on a major city. The attack was stopped, but it ruined the op; I got extracted, moved on to the next assignment, and never gave that one another thought.” Despite his best efforts, a little of his fury creeps into his voice. “Which it turns out was a mistake.”

Skye and Fitz both cringe a little at his dark tone, but mostly they look confused.

“A mistake how?” Skye asks.

“Naturally, SHIELD kept its eyes on Simmons even after Ward’s cover was blown.” Coulson clears his throat. “And there was a certain…development that the agents in charge of Simmons’ case decided to keep compartmentalized.”

Before Skye or Fitz can press for answers—and before Grant loses enough control to share exactly what he thinks of SHIELD and its goddamn _compartmentalizing_ —Coulson taps at the holocom to bring up a new picture.

Grant doesn’t look at it. He doesn’t need to. It’s been burned into his retinas for the last six hours, ever since he was pulled in for a private video briefing about this fucking case.

This picture, like the last one, is of Jemma. Jemma and a little boy with her bright smile, but Grant’s dark hair and dark eyes.

His _son_.

His son that he didn’t even know about—his son that SHIELD kept a _fucking secret_ from him—his son that’s been growing up without a father for five damn years.

“This is Zachary Simmons,” Coulson says, as Skye and Fitz’s eyes bounce from the picture to Grant and back. “Seven hours ago, he was kidnapped by persons unknown. _Six_ hours ago, his mother contacted SHIELD to inform us that if he isn’t returned within twenty-four hours, she’ll release an airborne pathogen into the D.C. metro. There are teams working to prevent that, of course, but our mission—”

“Wait, I’m sorry, can we back up a second?” Skye interrupts, and whirls on Grant. “You have a _kid_?”

Grant cracks his neck, fighting back his temper. “Apparently.”

“The decision was made,” Coulson says, in bland tone that still manages convey his disapproval of said decision, “not to inform Agent Ward of Zachary’s existence. There were concerns he might object to leaving him in Simmons’ custody and interfere with the ongoing attempts to bring her down.”

Fitz and Skye’s overlapping exclamations of shock and anger would be gratifying in any other circumstances. Right now, though, Grant’s a _little_ more concerned with the fact that _his son has been kidnapped_.

Luckily, before he can say anything unwise, Coulson steps in to get them back on track.

“Here’s what we know,” he says, quietly enough that Skye and Fitz have to shut up to hear him. “This morning, Zachary and his nanny visited a science museum in London. There’s no visitor parking at the museum or on the nearby street, so they had to park a few blocks away. Approximately two-thirds of the way back to their car, they were cornered by three men. A security camera caught the encounter.”

He puts the video up on screen, and all four of them watch in silence as Grant’s son hides behind a middle aged woman while she faces off against three bulky men. The video quality’s shit, but it’s clear enough that the woman and the men are arguing—which becomes blindingly obvious when one of the men makes a move for the woman and she pulls a gun on him.

Unfortunately, she’s outnumbered, and despite the fact that she puts up a hell of a fight (which is no surprise; Jemma wouldn’t leave her— _their_ —son undefended), within two minutes, she’s dead, and one of the men grabs Zachary and throws him, kicking and screaming, into a car that barely slows down as it passes.

It’s not the first time Grant’s seen this footage. But now that he’s had a few hours for this to sink in, for him to really absorb the fact that he has a son and that son just got _kidnapped_ , it hits even harder than the first time.

As the footage loops, he turns away, bracing his hands against the counter and trying to breathe through the shard of pain in his lungs. He needs to keep calm. Right here and right now, losing his temper won’t do him any good. Once they get to London, he can track down whoever took his son and rip their throats out, but here on the Bus?

He can’t afford to give away what he’s feeling. That’s a one-way ticket to getting pulled off this op, and he can’t let that happen.

Behind him, Coulson is giving Skye and Fitz the same basics Grant got hours ago. They can’t ID the car, they can’t ID the men, and Jemma’s got a list of enemies two hundred miles long, any one of whom could’ve taken Zachary.

“Why did Simmons contact SHIELD?” Fitz asks, once the rundown’s over. “Does she think we did it?”

“ _Did_ we do it?” Skye adds.

The questions kick Grant’s mind into gear. He was so busy being thrown over the what—a son he didn’t even know about, being _kidnapped_ —that he never even stopped to consider the _why_. Why _would_ Jemma turn to SHIELD? She’s pretty much got her own private army, a good half of which Grant himself recruited when he was posing as her lover. The last thing she needs is manpower.

Why risk her entire operation by bringing in SHIELD? She has to know there’s a decent chance that Zachary won’t be returned to her even if— _when_ —he’s rescued.

If SHIELD is behind this…

He turns back to the holocom just in time to catch Coulson hesitating, and his eyes narrow.

“No and no,” Coulson says, with a reassuring smile for Grant. After a second, though, it fades into a grimace.

“Sir?” Grant prompts.

“Simmons indicated that she wants you on this,” he says apologetically. “Or, rather, Kozlov.”

“Your cover?” Fitz guesses.

“Yeah.” Grant crosses his arms, eyes on the still-looping footage. Almost all of his covers have been dangerous men, but Kozlov is definitely the worst of them. Grant, as himself, is perfectly capable of brutality and cruelty, but at least he’s got _lines_.

Kozlov doesn’t have a one.

“So Simmons wants the ultra bad guy you were when you were spying on her,” Skye says.

“She specified,” Coulson agrees, still apologetic. “She said she doesn’t want some, quote, _romantic, do-good hero of a SHIELD agent_ , end quote. She wants Kozlov.”

It’s hard to tell, between the poor video quality and how much he was thrashing around, but Grant’s pretty sure Zachary was reaching for his nanny as he was carried away.

This isn’t the time for lines.

“She can have him,” he says and then, utterly sick of everything, slams out of the briefing room.


End file.
